Animal Farm

Have you seen the new issue of Create and Decorate? My "animal farm" pattern is in this issue. Hurry and get a copy and make them. They are sooo easy. I thought they'd make cute & easy ornaments too, quick Christmas gifts. You know, its really a good time to start making your Christmas gifts now so you won't be stressed and making stuff on Christmas Eve (like I do).

I found this picture of Pumpkin...it reminds me of the "Where's Waldo" books...try to find Pumpkin in the picutre! lol! How in the heck did he even find his way up there, anyway???

Garden photos

  I can't believe I haven't been here in over a week! Seems like I get busy every day and don't get a chance to post.  I finally have some new pictures from the garden. These are my watermelons and buttercup squash on the right. I thought I had enough room for them both there, but they are all mixed together and trying to get over in the next rows! Next year I'll be sure to have more room for them!

You can see my corn, tomatoes and squash here....I have squash coming in every day and the corn and tomatoes should be ready soon. I planted some blueberries yesterday--I've never tried to grow any. Daddy planted some and says they grow pretty slowly. Below are some pics of my tiny little watermelons and my buttercup squash....

I've been planning for my fall shows, sending in applications and trying to get some stuff made. I have been through nearly my whole box of paperclay since last night! I have about 10 moon ornaments drying, several make-do heads, a bird, 4 or 5 doll heads and some little jack-o-lanterns on stands. I'll let those dry for a while while working on other stuff. My big project is a creepy, nearly life-size man I'm making for Halloween. I really wanted to start him earlier, but this is pretty early for me. I saw one someone made on the internet and wanted to make one for myself. I bought a "bag of bones" after Halloween so I could use the skull (and maybe some other bones?) as the armature. He's pretty ugly so far! lol!

Last, but certainly not least...here's Bilbo sitting in my hubby's lap, his favorite place to be!

TGIF!

The kitties are ready for the weekend....and so am I! Even thought I have lots of tomato plants in my garden, I couldn't resist buying some new ones today. I planted seeds and I have some small heirloom tomatoes started, but they are so small, I had to get some yellow, green stripey & red stripey that were a little bigger. And I got a cherry tomato to replace the one that died. And I have 2 blueberry bushes to plant tomorrow! They are tiny so I'll have to be sure they don't get mowed down before they get big enough to see!

Maybe we'll get back to work in the studio tomorrow...but I know it will be HOT!....Sweet Pea looks mad in this picture, doesn't he? He isn't--the flash from my camera always makes him do that! ha...he's still cute even if he looks mad, ain't he?

Special Delivery!

Last weekend I got a package in the mail...I didn't even remember what I ordered....Sweet Pea kept grabbing at it, rubbing his head on it, then I remembered. You guessed it--CATNIP! They all had a good time with it. Pumpkin rolled and rolled in it until his pretty white fur had catpnip all in it!

 

I had to have a scarecrow in my garden--of course! This one was so easy to make! I used the corner post for our trellis, put the overalls over it, tied a few sticks around the top for his arms and let him borrow an old shirt. For the head I used one of those foam filled pumpkins (styrofoam type stuff) with the plastic coating. Luckily I already had one with a face painted on! I poked a hole in the bottom and scraped out some of the insides and pushed it onto the metal post. I tied some string in the hat to make a tie to tie under his head so the wind wouldn't blow it away. I was thinking it might be handy to stick some tools in his pockets, like a little shovel, string, scissors, etc. Stuff you sometimes need and are too lazy to go get! I guess he can be my garden helper! I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but I have some pumpkins planted around the bottom of the scarecrow--won't that look cool if some pumpkins actually grow there??? 

Goodies from the Garden....

 I apologize if you've had trouble getting on my blog....lots of people had trouble with the page locking up. When I checked it, I had the same problem! Hopefully that's fixed now! So....I finally started getting stuff out of my garden! Saturday night we had fried squash, cucumbers and a small salad from our garden. We had squash last night and tonight too. I guess its time to start dragging the squash recipes out! I guess I can make--fried squash, grilled squash, squash casserole, baked squash...any ideas? Squash relish? This picture was just made about a week ago and I can't believe how much everything has grown! I'll have to take another picture so you can see....I got up first thing this morning to hoe and it was still SO HOT. I may have to start getting up when then sun comes up to work out there. ha!

This is how my yellow squash looked--now it has about taken up both the walking spaces and we have to pick the squash off every day. I'll have to start giving it away! CJ the new kitty always used to hang out with us in the garden. He disappeared for about a week....then he came back the last couple of days just to eat. Today I walked around the side of the house to the porch and he was there eating....he took off when he saw me. I don't know why he was so scared--may take a few days to get him to let me pet him again. I'm sure he's been off "tom cattin" all this time!

The other night I went into the living room and saw this through my window. There is a window a/c unit there and the outside cats always jump on it, then Strawberry scratches and scratches and scratches on the window until I think I'll go insane. So I put this box on top of the a/c to keep the outside cats off the top of it. But Elvis just decided to crawl inside the box!

 

Babysitting

Guess what I did on Monday? I got to babysit my newest nephew all day! He is so sweet and fun--but I'm glad my niece, Tara, came to stay with me. She was a lot of help to me. She helped with the baby and even cleaned my living room for me and read us a book! Its been a while since we've had a baby in my family so I had forgotten how much fun they are to have around!

Almost every day I go into the garden and take a picture to share on my blog. Then the next day it is even bigger so I take another...but this is how my squash was coming along when I took the last picture! I think I'll have some to cook in about a week and I can't wait! There's nothing like having food on the table that you grew. I remember my Daddy talking about it and I didn't get it then, but now I do!

And here's a good picture of the new kitty--I guess he's planning on sticking around! His name is CJ and he has such pretty blue eyes! I had to cancel his appointment to be fixed, but that will be done soon.

Some dolls are coming along and I actually got a few new done, believe it or not!! And even new patterns for my website soon....I'm still wishing for that assistant that I need so badly!!!